check out the feathered raptor tail!

Since the majority of the suit is going to be covered in feathers but I've never worked with them until now, I decided to test my methods out on the tail first since it's (relatively) the easiest piece to do. As you can see, it's come together as well as I could have hoped for. Yes it looks spiky rather than smooth like modern birds, but many conceptional drawings render crude feathers in that way like: http://cdn.dinosaur-world.com/feathered_dinosaurs/species/deinonychus_antirrhopus.gif?rewrite=true
and http://www.azmnh.org/exhibits/feathered/images/Deinonychus-Head-for-press.jpg

As for construction details, it uses my usual PVC, vinyl tubing, and foam spine. This time around I've connected the pieces of the spine with rivets instead of plumbing glue to make it sturdier. Over this is a "skin" of grey stretch fabric and overlapping layers of feathers attached to elastic strips ringing the tail sections. A small bit of black faux fur, shaved into feather-like layers (major thanks go out to Crystumes for their YouTube tutorial on how to do this) covers the last line of feather bases near the tail base.